1. Bathe or shower in lukewarm not hot water. Hot water removes natural oil from the skin, making it dry and itchy.

2. Limit your showers to 10 minutes.

3. Use mild soaps. Try to avoid deodorant soaps, as they can be more drying.

4. Apply moisturizers to skin immediately after a bath or shower while your skin is still wet. Putting on a cream, ointment or lotion helps trap the water in the upper layers of the skin and decreases dryness and itching.

5. Shave using lotion or hair conditioner instead of shaving foam.

6. Dab petroleum jelly on problem areas to seal in moisture and heal dry skin.

7. After washing your hands, immediately put on hand cream to seal in moisture.

8. Consider purchasing a humidifier to keep the humidity in your home higher.

9. Drink lots of water.

10 Natural Ways to Prevent Colds and Flu

10 Natural Ways to Prevent Colds and Flu

1. Don't Cover Your Sneezes and Coughs with Your Hands
Because germs and viruses cling to your bare hands, muffling coughs and sneezes with your hands results in passing along your germs to others. When you feel a sneeze or cough coming, use a tissue. If you don't have a tissue, turn your head away from people near you and cough into the air.

2. Wash Your Hands
Someone who has the flu sneezes onto their hand, and then touches the telephone, the keyboard, a kitchen glass. The germs can live for hours -- in some cases weeks -- only to be picked up by the next person who touches the same object. So wash your hands often.

3. Don't Touch Your Face
Cold and flu viruses enter your body through the eyes, nose, or mouth. Touching their faces is the major way children catch colds, and a key way they pass colds on to their parents.

4. Drink Plenty of Fluids
Water flushes your system, washing out the poisons as it rehydrates you. A typical, healthy adult needs eight 8-ounce glasses of fluids each day.

5. Get Fresh Air
A regular dose of fresh air is important, especially in cold weather when central heating dries you out and makes your body more vulnerable to cold and flu viruses.

6. Do Aerobic Exercise Regularly
Aerobic exercise speeds up the heart to pump larger quantities of blood; makes you breathe faster to help transfer oxygen from your lungs to your blood; and makes you sweat once your body heats up. These exercises help increase the body's natural virus-killing cells.

7. Eat Healthy
Eat dark green, red, and yellow vegetables and fruits. Some studies have shown that eating a daily cup of low-fat yogurt can reduce your susceptibility to colds by 25 percent. Researchers think the beneficial bacteria in yogurt may stimulate production of immune system substances that fight disease.

8. Don't Smoke
Statistics show that heavy smokers get more severe colds and more frequent ones.

9. Cut Alcohol Consumption
Heavy alcohol use suppresses the immune system in a variety of ways. Heavier drinkers are more prone to initial infections as well as secondary complications.

10. Relax
If you can teach yourself to relax, you can activate your immune system on demand. There's evidence that when you put your relaxation skills into action, your interleukins -- leaders in the immune system response against cold and flu viruses -- increase in the bloodstream.

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WebMD does not provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment.

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